History of Africa to 1800
History of Africa To 1800 This course offers an introductory survey of African history from earliest times to 1800. Through lectures, discussions, readings, and films, we will explore Africa’s complex and diverse pre-colonial past. Themes examined in the course include development of long-distance trade networks, the linkages between ecological change and social dynamics, the formation of large pre-colonial states, and the transatlantic slave trade and its impact on social and economic relations within Africa. A broader concern in the course is how we have come to understand the meaning of “Africa” itself and what is at stake in interpreting Africa’s pre-colonial history. Pre-1800.
History of Africa To 1800 This course offers an introductory survey of African history from earliest times to 1800. Through lectures, discussions, readings, and films, we will explore Africa’s complex and diverse pre-colonial past. Themes examined in the course include development of long-distance trade networks, the linkages between ecological change and social dynamics, the formation of large pre-colonial states, and the transatlantic slave trade and its impact on social and economic relations within Africa. A broader concern in the course is how we have come to understand the meaning of …Read more
The lectures were a bit dry but covered a lot of material. The papers were difficult prompts that required a lot of citations and research. The exams were memorization heavy and graded very hard. Lost a lot of points on super nit-picky errors that did not reflect my overall understanding of the subject material.
This course was so hard and boring. I only took it because I needed a distribution req but it was so bad. The prof is nice but the readings were so confusing and he would talk so fast and I was lost most of the time. There was always a map exercise on his exams that was so unclear and hard to understand. this class ruined my gpa.
This course had a lot of content and as such it came with a good bit of reading, some of which was pretty tedious, but the topics it was on was reasonably interesting. The lectures really just reenforced the reading and went into a little more of the nitty gritty, so I found taking notes in class to be the best way to get information, but Tropp moves quickly, so you have to be quick. My biggest downside to this class was the rigidness of Tropp's deadlines. Sometimes I'd be completely swamped with work from all my other classes, but he really doesn't like to give extensions.
This course had a lot of content and as such it came with a good bit of reading, some of which was pretty tedious, but the topics it was on was reasonably interesting. The lectures really just reenforced the reading and went into a little more of the nitty gritty, so I found taking notes in class to be the best way to get information …Read more
History of Africa to 1800 was very interesting. There was a lot of subject material given its broad subject and geographic region. The tests were easy. Professor Tropp mainly lectures but is very passionate about the material and tries to elicit people's opinions on the subject.